Does Practice Make Perfect in Exercise?

You've heard it before and you'll likely hear it again: In fitness and in life, practice makes perfect. By practicing a move again and again -- for example, a squat in the weight room or a flip in gymnastics -- you are able to more easily internalize corrections and apply them to what you're doing. Pilates instructor Melanie Johnson always ends a class with "homework" so that her students can practice outside the studio. When you practice something many times, you will move through the stages of learning until you reach perfection or something close to it.

  1. Non-Conscious Incompetence

    • There are four stages of learning in exercise, says trainer Wes Wilke. To move up the stages and finally perfect a move, you need to practice. The first is called non-conscious incompetence. Essentially, this means that you don't know you can't do something because you've never tried it. In other words, you are not aware that you can't do it.

    Conscious Incompetence

    • The second stage of learning is called conscious incompetence. You reach this stage once you've tried something -- for example, a pullup -- and realize that you can't physically or mentally do it. At this point, you understand that you are not yet capable of completing a pullup. You need to practice again and again and apply corrections to pass this stage. According to a study by Nature Publishing Group, you become more efficient at fixing mistakes as you learn. You also become more efficient at choosing new strategies upon realizing that what you've been trying isn't working.

    Conscious Competence

    • The third stage of learning is conscious competence. According to Wilke, this is the hardest stage to overcome. When you've reached conscious competence, you've learned how to do something but must make a conscious effort in order to do it successfully. For example, you've finally mastered a pullup, but you can't complete it unless you think carefully through each step. To move from conscious competence to the next step, you must practice the pullup over and over again until the whole movement feels natural, rather than forced.

    Non-Conscious Competence

    • Finally, the last stage of learning an exercise is called non-conscious competence. By this point, you've practiced your movement so many times that it comes naturally to you. You don't even have to think about it. Another way to describe non-conscious competence would be "autopilot." Wilke explains that you are able to reach this stage because of what is known as muscle memory. When you've done something many times before, your body sends unconscious signals to your brain that allow you to complete the move without thinking.